"Grease-Gate" From a Fighter's Perspective

Georges St. Pierre vs. BJ Penn 2 also known as "Grease Gate" has been discussed countless times since the event took place on Jan. 24th. Everything written about the controversy has been nothing more than speculation, and only GSP's cornermen know the truth.

From a fan's perspective, people favoring GSP have said Penn is searching for excuses and for someone to blame for the loss. Those favoring Penn have said that he was unable to implement his jiu-jitsu because GSP was covered in Vaseline. I have spent a lot of time asking fighters and trainers alike what they think about the situation.

Most fighters, including UFC, PRIDE veteran, and former King of Pancrase Guy Mezger didn't think it had anything to do with the outcome of the fight regardless if it was true or not.

"He was the bigger guy, strong and powerful and that wears you out," stated former UFC champion Mezger. "To be honest, I think the Vaseline thing is BS. GSP could have been dipped in Crisco and it wouldn't have changed the fight. If you look, they towel him off in the second round. A couple of brush strokes across the chest and on the back are not going to change the dynamics of the fight. If you lather him down, it may change the outcome, but if you watch the fight, you would see that it wouldn't have mattered."

I went back and watched in between the rounds in slow motion just to make sure there wasn't anything that I or anyone for that matter may have missed. Judging by what I saw and what the Athletic Commission had to say about the matter, it looks as if Penn is looking for excuses and somewhere to lay the blame.

Sure GSP was sweaty after the first few minutes of the fight just as Penn was, and any hardcore fan is aware of the odd rituals the fighters from Greg Jackson's camp perform. I firmly believe this controversy is nothing more than GSP's camp performing breathing techniques and Penn trying to make up an excuse for the pounding he took.

Hopefully when reading this article fans realize I am not trying to disrespect Penn or his camp for making these allegations. Penn is one of the best fighters in the world and when a guy who is used to being the more dominant fighter gets dominated, that's hard to swallow.

I for one know from experience that getting outclassed in a fight is a tough thing to come to terms with. I knew going into one of my fights that I had the superior stand up skills and was envisioning ending the fight very quickly, and this caused me to work less on cardio and my ground game and more on power and sriking technique.

After I landed a few punches I spent the majority of the round defending takedowns and then finally being taken down, mounted, and had my back taken twice. I had no energy going into round 2 and was taken down again and again being mounted and then tapped out via rear naked choke.

I am in no way comparing myself to Penn, but believe the situation was similar in regards to fight preparation.Penn was so confident his striking would win him the fight along with his stellar TD defense, I believe he neglected his jiu jitsu and his cardio.

If his thinking GSP was "greased" helps him sleep at night then more power to him, but hopefully over time he realizes it was poor preparation and a case of simply being outclassed that caused him to lose that fight.